The Russian embassy in London has warned that Britain will pay a price for supplying drones reportedly used by Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia, in a statement accusing the UK of deliberately escalating the war.
The embassy said reports that Ukraine is using British drones for strikes deep inside Russian territory “confirm that London is deliberately opting for an escalation of the Ukraine crisis, while hypocritically professing a desire for peace.”
It said: “In doing so, the United Kingdom is acting as an accomplice and co-perpetrator of the bloody crimes and terrorist attacks committed by Ukrainian neo-Nazis, seeking to contain Russia and inflict maximum damage on it by proxy. London’s actions will inevitably carry consequences for which it will have to answer. The deeper its involvement in the conflict and the greater its support for Kiev’s terrorist machinery, the higher the price it will pay.”
Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, was asked during a visit to Wolverhampton bus station what his message to Vladimir Putin was. He said: “This is the UK doing what it has long said it would do, which is to support Ukraine 100% against this illegal war led by Vladimir Putin.”
He added: “We are providing support so that Ukraine can defend itself, and that’s been the British position all the way through this conflict by previous prime ministers. It remains the case with me. We are not fair-weather friends. We will be there in Ukraine’s hour of need, and that won’t change.”
The Ministry of Defence had responded the previous evening, saying that Britain stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine and is committed to providing the equipment Ukraine needs to defend itself against Putin’s illegal invasion.
The embassy statement followed reporting in the Sunday Times that Ukraine had used drones made by two British companies as part of its deep strike campaign. The embassy’s response was posted on its Telegram channel.
Ukraine has expanded long-range strikes against Russian territory considerably this year, with drones and missiles aimed at military industry, oil refineries and logistics. Data from the conflict monitor Acled indicates Ukraine launched three times as many such strikes in July as it did in January, and the campaign has forced Russia to spread its air defences across a far larger area.
Among the targets have been distribution depots belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, an approach aimed at cutting revenue funding the war and bringing its effects home to the Russian public. A strike last week hit a Wildberries logistics hub at Koledino in the Podolsk district, around 25 miles south of the Kremlin, during an attack the regional governor described as among the most massive in recent times.
The Russian defence ministry said on Saturday that it had shot down 598 Ukrainian drones over 19 Russian regions, along with the Black and Azov Seas and Crimea.
Warnings of this kind from the Russian embassy in London are routine rather than exceptional, and the mission has issued similar statements on British sanctions, cyber measures and remarks by sports officials in recent weeks. Moscow made comparable accusations in 2022 over alleged British involvement in the drone attack on the Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol, which Britain rejected at the time.
The two British companies named in the reporting have not commented publicly, and the government does not routinely confirm which specific systems it has supplied to Ukraine.
